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Page 5, News, Tuesday, October 30, 1990 ~ Creating the 'John Doe' law It was revealed recently that a justice committee in Ottawa is recommending to the House of Commons a law that would mean men caught cruising sex "strips" and picking up prostitutes in their cars, would have their drivers' licence suspended for three months. Well that's just fine and dandy for the Members of Parliment. They won't be affected by such a law. They have chauffeurs! Men driving under the influence of a prostitute - gives a whole new meaning to the ol' RD. program doesn't it ? William J. Thomas Can you imagine the roadside checks. Officer: "Good evening. Have you consumed any alcoholic beverages this evening?" Driver: "No sir." Officer: "Is it your intent to commit a sexual act with this lady of the evening?" Driver: "Officer, that's no lady of the evening - that's my wife." Officer: "Are you saying you have no intention of having sex with this women." Driver: "Of course not, I told you, that's my wife!" The new program probably won't be called R.I.D.E. It'll likely be called the R.I.S.E.- Reduce Illicit Sex Everywhere (especially in the front seat of your Dodge Charger). In order to appreciate the effect of such a solicitation law on the Canadian male psyche you must understand man's history of sexual punishment in this country. At the age of ten. or so, Canadian boys are told that the punishment for having sex in a certain way is that their fingers will fall off. "The certain way " is alone. Soon thereafter, let's say at the age of 12, boys are told by their mothers that having sex in a certain way will make them go blind. "The certain way " is alone with National Geographic's feature: "The Sponge-Diving Women Of Mozambique." As they mature, Canadian males are taught that sex - alone or even with another person - can result in pimples, pregnancy (the other person's),warts, criminal charges, lower back problems, divorce (with a person other than "the significant other" person,) hiccoughs, cold sores, terminal insanity, temporary drowsiness, continued on page 8 A straight look at ourselves Sometimes it just makes yer ole Baba's heart thump with gratitude to run across an article by some columnist which makes so much sense, you wonder how they could cram so much into so little space. : The one by Diane Francis in the Sept. 17th issue of Maclean's magazine is just such a one. Entitled 'Once a kinder and gentler nation', it takes issue with so many aspects of the bad side of us Canadians today, that I was quite breathless with admiration. As an expatriate American of many years living in this country, T sure hope she doesn't get ridden out on the rail of reader indignation at being told how we really look today, and not how we fancy ourselves in the baloney rhetoric of our baloney pols. Her article should be reprinted and sent out to every Canadian household like a Declaration, a declaration of how NOT to be a certain kind of Canadian and Olga Landiak human being. How I agree with her that we get the politics we deserve because everybody wants something for nothing these days. She mentions corporations which line up for grants, multicultural groups wanting tax dollars to keep their particular traditions alive instead of doing it privately, our dear aboriginals breaking the law left, right and centre at our tax expense for some kind of 'rights' above and beyond the rest of us (just like the French of Quebec), unions holding guns to employers heads for concessions which create inflation for the rest of us, and pols. in every strata of government voting themselves huge raises and pensions as though they actually deserved them. Miss Francis scores hard on other points also. The out-and- out crookery of the systems which are supposed to be in place ONLY for the needy unfortunates and not the lazy, arrogant and selfish who don't need these benefits but legally claim them anyway; the daily shopping in the U.S.A. by border people who never declare a single item or pay duty thereby making themselves tax evaders of the first water, and who derive benefits from our social system at the same time. She quotes many examples of Canadians indulging in such terrible practices and, I'm telling you, even with knowledge that such selfishnesses abound in our society, it still came as a shock to see them listed in black-and- -white. I think we can now throw away the popular false image of -- ourselves as thrifty, generous, hard-working, self-made, upright people, right into the old ash can. We're just like everybody else - greedy, selfish, grasping. Not a nice picture, to be sure, and it takes the courage of somebody like Miss Francis to shake us up into seeing ourselves as we really are and not through some Alice-in-Wonderland Looking Glass. You may argue we are no better, no worse than any other peoples in any other countries, and that that's the kind of work it is these days. But surely that is nothing to brag about, or feel proud of, now is it? Just 'cause the other guy's doing it, is hardly an excuse for allowing ourselves to slide so low down the human scale. We have too much of the smart-mouthed kind of talk going on around us, together with the smarty-pants attitude of how 'the world owes me a living, and by god, I'm going to grab every cent I can, legally or illegally, lay my hands on.' Listen, the only thing the world or society owes us, is living space in which to make a good, honest, hard-working living to the best of our ability, and give us a helping hand when we REALLY need it because of circumstances completely beyond our control. We are not 'owed' a damn thing, nor have any so-called 'rights', without dccepting the responsibility which goes along with both. Tourism one part of strategy Tourism, the experts say, is now the world's largest industry - with gross revenues of 2.6 trillion dollars a year. But the experts are also warning us that Canada is missing the boat on all this business. While other countries are increasing their expenditures on tourism promotions, Canada is spending less - about 15 per cent less this year than in 1989 - and that includes government as well as private sector spending. Per capita expenditures in Canada on tourism promotion are now ninth in the industrialized world - just ahead of Luxembourg. This dismal -picture was presented recently (October 18th) to the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce by Pat Forrest, the newly-appointed manager of Thunder Bay's Visitors and Convention Bureau. Ms. Forrest has only had enough time to summarize the situation we're in internationally and nationally, and has yet to develop specific strategies to promote Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario. NORTHERN INSIGHTS Previous studies, such as one done for Thunder Bay in 1983, pointed out the obvious - we have an image problem. According to the study, most travelers think of Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario only as a stop-over point. Thunder Bay in particular, has yet to develop a reputation as a destination point. On a more general level, we have an international image that is not very distinguishable from the United States. If we have an image of any sort, it's "moose, mountains, and Mounties". 'Forrest's. figures also reinforced: what local businesses have been experiencing first hand: visits to Thunder Bay by tourists peaked in 1981 (the year by Larry Sanders we hosted the Canada Summer Games), reached a plateau during the mid-80s, and then declined even further until 1988. There was a Slight increase last year in Thunder Bay, one that was not experienced in the -rest of northwestern Ontario. Forrest didn't mention this, but the reasons for this decline are already well known. Tourists and Canadians are choosing to travel through the United States, rather than Canada, because of the huge difference in the price of gasoline. Since the Persian Gulf crisis, American gas prices have gone up, but so have ours. It still costs between 50 - 75% less for gas in the States than in Canada. If you're retired and driving a gas- guzzling motor home, that kind of saving is important. Then there's a host of-other complaints - the rising value of the Canadian dollar; the high price and relative inaccessibility of Canadian alcohol; the desire of Americans to "stay home" for their vacations, and the heavy encouragement they're getting to do that from state and federal tourist agencies. Then there's the issue of our roads. In the 1950's, the United States federal government decided to make a road network called "the Inter-States", and poured billions into making four- lane divided super highways from one end of the U.S. to the other. Some of those inter-states are now in need or repair, but for the most part, they're still in much better shape than our trans- Canada highway, especially through northern Ontario. Thus, tourists face an easy choice if they're driving across North America: half price gasoline, and highways with only driving boredom as a safety problem if they choose the American routes; double-price gasoline and highways full of heart-stopping bumps and line-ups, if you choose the Canadian route. Forrest thus has a complex of problems confronting her, and it's not surprising she didn't come up with easy solutions. All she could point to was the obvious - "the need to develop a unifying, exciting image and slogan for Thunder Bay". A committee made up of players in the tourism industry, city hall, and the Chamber of Commerce, are now all sitting down together for the first time in decades to review and decide what that image and slogan should be. Whether that continued on page 12